Prius owner converted

sexwax

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 30, 2006
Location
Silicon Valley, California
TDI
2005 Jetta TDI
Reposted from an email that I received:

"We went to the farmers market today, I parked the car and this Prius pulls in behind me. I get out and the guy asks,"Thats a Diesel right?" He explains that he rented a golf TDI in germany and really liked it. Ask what I get for mileage I told him about 600 on the highway and around 450 in town. He said that was better than his Prius and that he was looking into the Jetta TDI and getting rid of the Prius, basically he said it was a piece of crap."
 
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NewTdi

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 15, 2004
Location
NorCal
TDI
2003 Bora, Reflex Silver
my neighbor was shocked when I told him that I get on average 650miles/tank! Furthermore I have had no issues for the past 80,000 miles while he has taken his car to the dealer 3 or 4 times for different issues.
 

Azonic

Veteran Member
Joined
May 9, 2006
Location
Mt Vernon, MO
TDI
'02 Jetta
Toyota did a great thing with some technology, and mileage with the Prius,
However, it is not...that good of an idea for America.
even in the most dense areas... People still spend more time at highways speeds than most want to admit.
And that is not the point of any Hybrid!!
They want the start-stop that kills mileage.
 

McBrew

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Joined
Oct 30, 2002
Location
Annapolis, MD
TDI
2003 Golf GLS TDI, 5 speed, Silver/Grey
Ask what I get for mileage I told him about 600 on the highway
Whoa! I only get about 54 MPG onthe highway! lol!

When comparing fuel economy, you should use MPG or l/100km. Miles per tank depends a lot on what size your tank is and how much of that fuel you use. My motorhome gets 650 miles per tank. So does my Sprinter. I have stretched a tank on the TDI out to 903 miles. However, none of these numbers gives an accurate number for the fuel economy of the vehicle... especially when comparing it to a completely different vehicle.
 

DrSmile

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2003
Location
New Jersey USA
TDI
05 GLS PD 5spd Wagon
21 gallon tank... wow now I'm daydreaming about my bladder exploding if I could drive the TDI for 18 hours!
 

sexwax

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 30, 2006
Location
Silicon Valley, California
TDI
2005 Jetta TDI
McBrew said:
Whoa! I only get about 54 MPG onthe highway! lol!

When comparing fuel economy, you should use MPG or l/100km. Miles per tank depends a lot on what size your tank is and how much of that fuel you use. My motorhome gets 650 miles per tank. So does my Sprinter. I have stretched a tank on the TDI out to 903 miles. However, none of these numbers gives an accurate number for the fuel economy of the vehicle... especially when comparing it to a completely different vehicle.
This was an email I received, so obviously I did not get the whole story or entire conversation.
 

McBrew

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Joined
Oct 30, 2002
Location
Annapolis, MD
TDI
2003 Golf GLS TDI, 5 speed, Silver/Grey
I was filling up with B100 (in the days before I mad my own), and the... uhhh... good ol' boy at the station told me that someone else in a Deezul VotesWaggin had filled up earlier that day. That feller told him that he got 800 miles per gallon on the stuff. He figgered that made up for the fact that bio was 30 cents more per gallon than regular diesel. I said, "You mean 800 miles per tank." "No," he said, "800 miles per gallon."Yeah, buddy... I think 800 miles per gallon would just about make up for 30 cents extra per gallon. Go home to your sister and kids.

That place burned down.

Sexwax, sorry, I missed the fact that you were posting an email fom someone else. My bad.
 

soberups

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2006
Location
Newberg Oregon
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI
If they made a Prius with an extra battery that could be plugged in at night, my wife would buy one in a heartbeat. She drives only about 8 miles roundtrip per day to work and back, all in town. If we had a pluggable Prius, she would use virtually no gas at all. Even better yet would be a Prius that we could run on natural gas that we could fill up from our house (we have gas heat). My commute is a 30 mile roundtrip, mostly highway, so for that the Jetta rules.
 

owr084

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Joined
Oct 20, 2004
Location
Northern Virginia (NoVA)
TDI
Passat GLS, 2005, Stonehenge Gray
soberups said:
If they made a Prius with an extra battery that could be plugged in at night, my wife would buy one in a heartbeat. She drives only about 8 miles roundtrip per day to work and back, all in town. If we had a pluggable Prius, she would use virtually no gas at all.
Actually, some Prius owners have "hacked" their cars to do just that - expensive though. Just google "prius" and "hacks"
 

Tsagoth

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2005
Location
Hanover, ON
TDI
2003 Jetta Wagon Automatic
Friends of ours demolished their Prius a few weeks ago, and after I had a chat with them about TDI's, they bought an 06 Golf TDI and an 06 Jetta TDI Wagon. I think their main interest is the fact that they can run biodiesel and still get relatively decent mileage. We were visiting with them this past weekend, and while they like the cars, they're disappointed with their mileage results.

I explained a few things to them about it: winter diesel, short trips and the fact that their cars have less than a thousand miles on them. He drives 18km one way to work for example, the temp gauge doesn't even make it to the middle by the time he gets there.

I think he said they're getting around 33mpg (US) atm. Probably not bad for them in those cars, but they were hoping to be closer to the Prius ratings. They were getting 55-60 (IMP) mpg in their Prius and I can get 55mpg (IMP) in my 03 Wagon; I think they thought they'd see that right out of the gate.
 
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digifant_gli

Veteran Member
Joined
May 6, 2006
Location
Ontario Canada
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI Wagon
As both of your friends have Pumpe Duse TDI Engines, I wouldn't suggest that they run home made Bio Diesel in their cars - it's not the best idea for these engines and in some instances, it has caused engine damage.

It took a while for the mileage on our 2006 TDI Wagon to improve, but once it did...it was awesome and we've never looked back!

Tsagoth said:
Friends of ours demolished their Prius a few weeks ago, and after I had a chat with them about TDI's, they bought an 06 Golf TDI and an 06 Jetta TDI Wagon. I think their main interest is the fact that they can run biodiesel and still get relatively decent mileage. We were visiting with them this past weekend, and while they like the cars, they're disappointed with their mileage results.

I explained a few things to them about it: winter diesel, short trips and the fact that their cars have less than a thousand miles on them. He drives 18km one way to work for example, the temp gauge doesn't even make it to the middle by the time he gets there.

I think he said they're getting around 33mpg (US) atm. Probably not bad for them in those cars, but they were hoping to be closer to the Prius ratings. They were getting 55-60 (IMP) mpg in their Prius and I can get 55mpg (IMP) in my 03 Wagon; I think they thought they'd see that right out of the gate.
 

Tsagoth

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Joined
Nov 22, 2005
Location
Hanover, ON
TDI
2003 Jetta Wagon Automatic
digifant_gli said:
As both of your friends have Pumpe Duse TDI Engines, I wouldn't suggest that they run home made Bio Diesel in their cars - it's not the best idea for these engines and in some instances, it has caused engine damage.
It took a while for the mileage on our 2006 TDI Wagon to improve, but once it did...it was awesome and we've never looked back!
They are running commercial B20 atm. I don't think they plan to make their own, but they will probably switch to B100 for the summer. I talked to them about Bio, about PD engines etc. Ultimately though, they can do whatever they want; if the engines go bye-bye, so be it. I did my part by warning them about the various PD perils.
 

McBrew

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Joined
Oct 30, 2002
Location
Annapolis, MD
TDI
2003 Golf GLS TDI, 5 speed, Silver/Grey
As both of your friends have Pumpe Duse TDI Engines, I wouldn't suggest that they run home made Bio Diesel in their cars - it's not the best idea for these engines and in some instances, it has caused engine damage.
Can you point to some discussions about biodiesel damage in PD engines? I haven't heard of any. We are running four PD TDIs on homemade B100 with no ill effects so far. Well, we are down to B80/K20 for the winter.
 

supton

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Joined
May 25, 2004
Location
Central NH (USA)
TDI
'04 Jetta Wagon GLS
Almost sounds like they were better off with the Prius, short low-speed trips by the sounds of it. Maybe keep the wagon, trade the Golf--bigger wagon for when they need more space, and Prius for a bit better mpg's.

TDI's are not the "best" solution for everyone.

Of course, the '06's might not be broken in, and automatics maybe, winter temps, all not helping.
 

joshgb

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Joined
Jun 18, 2005
Location
Cachagua, California
TDI
04 Jetta wagon black
McBrew said:
Can you point to some discussions about biodiesel damage in PD engines? I haven't heard of any.
Amen. For all the rumors, there is next to no evidence that conscientious use of QUALITY biodiesel damages the PD engine in practice as opposed to theory.
 

McBrew

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Joined
Oct 30, 2002
Location
Annapolis, MD
TDI
2003 Golf GLS TDI, 5 speed, Silver/Grey
Exactly... we don't need any more misinformation posted without reference to any actual case. There are already way too many misleading thread titles, like "Bio-Disaster" that always turn out to be something other than a biodiesel problem.

Poorly made fuel can potentially cause problems with any engine. However, simply saying that somemade fuel will damage your engine is like saying that homemade food could give you food poisoning, so you should only eat at restaurants.
 

digifant_gli

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Joined
May 6, 2006
Location
Ontario Canada
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI Wagon
McBrew said:
Exactly... we don't need any more misinformation posted without reference to any actual case. There are already way too many misleading thread titles, like "Bio-Disaster" that always turn out to be something other than a biodiesel problem.

Poorly made fuel can potentially cause problems with any engine. However, simply saying that somemade fuel will damage your engine is like saying that homemade food could give you food poisoning, so you should only eat at restaurants.
I'm going based on what I was told when I worked for VW. Straight from the horse's mouth - the use of a non-commercially produced bio-diesel was not recommended for the PD engine - the instructor went on to say that any engine damage caused by the use of home made biodiesel was the responsibility of the owner. At least if there is a commercially produced fuel being used that causes problems, it is something that the fuel manufactuer can potentially assist in covering the cost of repairs.

Homemade Bio Diesel may be fine - but it's not a risk that I would be willing to take in my car.
 

joshgb

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Joined
Jun 18, 2005
Location
Cachagua, California
TDI
04 Jetta wagon black
I can certainly understand avoiding biodiesel in a PD engine out of a desire to stay on VWs good side. But when it comes to claiming real damage to a PD engine from the use of quality biodiesel, I say show me the body.

Someone ran a thread here awhile back, in fact, solicting just such an instance in any tdi engine---pd or not. Noone could produce a compelling example. All the examples offered up turned out to be either 1) crappy bio gumming up the tandem pump or injectors or whatnot 2) Someone saying "I went to VW and they said bio ruined my engine." 3) Inconclusive variations/combinations on 1 and 2.

Where's the proof?
 

Lightflyer1

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Joined
Sep 13, 2005
Location
Round Rock, Texas
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2015 Beetle tdi dsg
The instructor should have known that this applies to "any" bad fuel you put into your tank, not just bad biodiesel you made and put in there. Just because your heard it from a VW instructor, doesn't make it true. They have their own slant on things too. If you make bad bio and put it in your car, you are your own insurance company.
 
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